Guide to Visiting the National Park of American Samoa

Our Goal to Visit all of The US National Parks

Several years ago, when we started our careers as traveling physical therapists, we began visiting a few US National Parks near our travel therapy contracts on the east coast. When we set out on our first cross-country road trip in 2019, we decided it would be a fun goal to try to visit ALL of the US National Parks!

Flash forward about three years later in 2022 and we had visited nearly sixty out of sixty-three total parks! This was quite the feat, visiting almost all of the ones in the contiguous US via road trips, plus the Hawaii and Alaska parks when we were in each location for travel physical therapy contracts in 2021 and 2022.

There were a couple of lingering parks in the lower 48 that we had tried to get to more than once, but we were derailed by ferry cancellations (Dry Tortugas off the Florida Keys and Isle Royale in the middle of Lake Superior). But we knew it wouldn’t be too big of a hassle to get back to those at some point. Then we also had Virgin Islands left to visit, but we figured that wouldn’t been too difficult once we got around to planning the trip.

The real kicker for us was going to be figuring out how to make it to one of the most remote US National parks: National Park of American Samoa, located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. In fact, this park ends up being one of the last ones for many people trying to visit all the US National Parks.

If you’re reading this, you may just be one of those people trying to figure out how the heck to get to the National Park of American Samoa!

We had a rather interesting experience getting there and back, so I’ll share our journey with you, including some of the things to do and also not to do so that you can have a better experience!

The Journey to American Samoa

As of late 2022, we had no immediate plans to book a trip to American Samoa. We figured this was going to be a far off adventure sometime in the distant future, and we figured it would probably be our last park.

For the last couple of months of the year we were planning an international trip to Europe, which turned into an Around the World trip when we changed our minds and decided to venture over to Australia and New Zealand. Once we began our planning to get from our first stop in Greece over to Oceania, I came to the realization that we would actually be very close to American Samoa in the Pacific when we went to Australia and New Zealand. Once I realized this, I was determined that we were going to make it work and get to this national park on this trip!

Unfortunately, this stumbled-upon approach ended up not actually being the best option for traveling to the remote island of American Samoa. Even though geographically it is quite close to Australia and New Zealand, there were a number of problems with this plan that I didn’t realize at the time.

The first major problem we encountered is that there are only a couple of places where you can fly directly from to get into American Samoa. These include Hawaii and the independent island nation of Samoa. The two airlines that fly these routes are Hawaiian Airlines from Hawaii and Talofa Airways from Samoa. I believe when we were there, we also saw flights with Fiji Airways, but as of now I’m not seeing any options when I search.

So our plan to get there directly from Australia or New Zealand turned out to be a lot more difficult than we thought. It didn’t really make sense for us to go all the way up to Hawaii to connect to American Samoa given that we were already much further south. So it seemed our only real option was connecting in Samoa. Unfortunately the only airline that goes directly to American Samoa is the small local airline, Talofa Airways. This meant we had to fly on a separate airline to get to Samoa, and we ended up having to stay overnight in Samoa for one night because the flight times didn’t line up with the other airline. On top of this, we were squeezing American Samoa in between our visits to Australia and New Zealand, so our beginning and ending destinations weren’t the same.

So, here is what we ended up doing. We booked a one-way flight from Brisbane, Australia to Apia, Samoa with Quantas Airways. We then booked an overnight hotel stay near the airport in Samoa. The next day, we booked a one-way flight with Talofa Airways from Apia, Samoa to Pago Pago, American Samoa. Then for our return trip, we booked a one-way flight back with Talofa Airways from Pago Pago, American Samoa to Apia, Samoa. Followed by a one-way flight on the same day with Air New Zealand from Apia, Samoa to Auckland, New Zealand.

This was all a big hassle and ended up being quite expensive. All in all we spent about $1000 each on these four separate flights to get to and from American Samoa. Plus costs to stay overnight in Samoa.

But, at least we had it done and all figured out. Or so we thought.

After I finished with all of the bookings, I noticed that my confirmation for the American Samoa flights with Talofa Airways looked weird. They had us leaving on one date at X time, arriving 30 minutes later, but on a different date. I thought for sure this must just be a typo, and I was going to call them to get the itinerary fixed. Until I thought, well let me just double check there’s not some weird time change between Samoa and American Samoa. And oh boy, was there.

On first glance, it looks like they’re in the same time zone. If it’s 12pm in Samoa, it’s also 12pm in American Samoa. But on closer inspection, they’re actually TWENTY-FOUR HOURS APART. Yes, one full day difference. When you go from Samoa to American Samoa, you cross the International Date Line, and go back a day.

This seems absolutely crazy considering the two islands are only about 100 miles apart, and they used to be the same nation. Plus the fact that one of the two main ways to travel to/from American Samoa is via Samoa. But the reason that American Samoa is in a different time zone (and DAY) is because it’s a territory of the US, so it’s in line with the US date and time zones. I guess as far as business operations this makes more sense for them to be on the same date as the rest of the US and near the same time as Hawaii (only 1 hour difference).

However, if you’re like us and trying to plan and book an itinerary coming from Samoa, this is utter chaos. (It must also be a nightmare for anyone who regularly travels between the two islands for work or family, and I’m sure the airlines deal with issues all the time).

So half of what I booked was for the wrong dates because we suddenly jumped ahead a day, including our accommodations in American Samoa, and our return flights.

Luckily I did figure this out several weeks in advance, rather than when we got there. So I was able to make some calls and get things changed to the correct dates. But it was a major hassle!

So, with all of this in mind, I can definitely say that the easier route to get to American Samoa would have been flying via Hawaii. Of course, this makes sense for most Americans trying to visit the US National Parks anyway. Likely you’ll be coming from: America. We are just the weirdos who tried to plan a trip to a US Territory coming from the other side of the world! How silly of us to think it would be easy breezy. It would’ve been so much less hassle coming from Hawaii, directly to American Samoa, on Hawaiian Airlines, same day and only one hour time difference.

So you can learn from our mistake and be sure to do it that way! But, it will still be expensive, that part is unavoidable even from Hawaii. In fact it may actually be more expensive. A brief search shows prices between $1000 to $1300 for a round trip flight from Hawaii to American Samoa. Plus you’ll have to get to Hawaii if you’re coming from the mainland. So, it’ll be expensive either way, but definitely more logistically feasible to go via Hawaii from the US.

Staying in American Samoa

The next piece of the puzzle we had to figure out to visit the National Park of American Samoa was where we were going to stay. The island of American Samoa is pretty underdeveloped as far as tourism goes, so there are minimal options. We did find a couple of Airbnb options as well as a couple of hotels on the island, but based on our experience, places there can often be closed or unavailable even if there is a listing. So make sure to book in advance and ensure you’ve talked to someone directly to confirm availability. We read that there are also some homestay options where locals let you stay with them in their homes, but we did not explore this option.

We ended up booking an Airbnb in a house with a private bedroom/bathroom but a shared kitchen/living area. This worked out okay for us overall, but we failed to realize that staying in the more residential area meant we weren’t necessarily very close to restaurants and stores. More on this when I discuss transportation.

If we were to do it over again, I would probably stay at Sadie’s by the Sea hotel. This is one of the main hotels on the island. It’s located a lot closer to the National Park, within walking distance to the Visitor’s Center. It’s also walking distance to several restaurants and stores. There is also a restaurant on site, as well as a pool and a private beach. In fact, it’s really one of the only beaches on the island. We actually went there briefly without realizing it was a private beach owned by the hotel. Overall this would have been a much more convenient option than the Airbnb we ended up staying in.

However, we were able to meet some nice people by staying at the Airbnb and this definitely helped shape our experience on the island, so it all worked out in the end. The people we met at the Airbnb weren’t natives to the area, but they were living there for several months or years working on the island, so it gave us more of an opportunity to hang out with local people and get to know the island better.

Whether you decide to stay at a hotel, Airbnb, or do a homestay will depend on your preferences and also the availability of accommodations at the time of your visit. But I would definitely recommend checking into Sadie’s as that seemed like the best overall option to us.

Transportation and Getting Around

We generally don’t rent cars when we travel. We usually rely on public transportation and walking. Since the island was fairly small and we read that you could get taxis or the bus for cheap, we planned to use those options. But, we found that the transportation options especially from where we chose to stay were very limited.

We ended up walking some very long distances the first couple of days to try to find a grocery store or restaurant to get food and supplies. We attempted using the bus system and taxis but found that they were on a very irregular schedule on our side of the island. We also found that restaurants and stores had very irregular hours, and there was really no rhyme or reason as to whether they’d be open at a certain time. This had us really nervous whether we’d be able to find any food or supplies at all the first day, but we ended up finding something eventually.

We did get a taxi from the airport to our Airbnb the first day, and the taxi driver gave us his number if we needed a ride in the future. We did consider using this option, but it probably would’ve been very pricey especially as far as getting to the National Park if we had him take us there, wait on us, and then return us home later. So we did not use this option.

The option we planned to mostly use were the $1 bus rides. We did take the bus one day from our Airbnb, to the National Park Visitor Center and a short trail nearby, and then back later that day. But the issue with these buses is they’re privately operated and they don’t have a set schedule, so they’re very unpredictable. They also are not likely to run on Sundays, which was one of our main days there, so this left us troubled when we found out they “probably” don’t go on Sundays (really, nobody we asked seemed to have a good idea of an exact schedule).

We were fortunate in our case that we ended up making a friend who was staying at our Airbnb, one of the people who was living and working on the island temporarily. She had been wanting to go hiking herself at the National Park but didn’t have anyone to go with, so it worked out well when we told her we were there to go to the park. So she offered to drive us there. One of her coworkers came along, and we all ended up spending the day together, exploring the island.

This made for an amazing experience and really saved us, because we found out that the bus only had limited routes to get to just one area of the National Park. Since we made a friend with a car, we were able to go to a couple of different areas on the island and within the park that we wouldn’t have been able to go otherwise. We were very thankful for this!

Based on our experience with the limited transportation options on the island, I would recommend renting a car if you visit American Samoa. This will give you a lot more options in terms of getting to various places within the National Park, plus other locations for food and shopping on the island. There may also have been some other beaches on the island that we weren’t able to explore because of our limited transportation options.

Other Logistics

Since American Samoa is somewhat underdeveloped, there are some other logistical things you may want to consider before your trip.

Cell Phone Service/WiFi

The cell service wasn’t great on most of the island, and WiFi is not readily available at most public places. WiFi at your accommodation may or may not be reliable.

I would highly recommend downloading the offline map for the island using Google Maps before you arrive on the island, as well as getting a physical map of the National Park at the Visitors Center and possibly a map of the island as well. I would also do some research in advance regarding where you plan to go, what you plan to do, etc just in case you don’t have great service there.

Currency

Since it’s a US Territory, they use the US Dollar. I would plan to bring some cash with you because ATMs are not plentiful on the island. We did find one inside the McDonalds and inside one of the bigger supermarkets. If you’re staying in the central area you may also be able to go to one at a local bank. If you do plan to ride the $1 buses or take taxis, you’ll need to have dollar bills and for taxis it’s best to have exact change if possible. Fortunately many of the restaurants and bigger supermarkets did accept cards, but smaller local places may not.

Drinking Water

It wasn’t advised to drink the tap water on island, so we relied on bottled water. Make sure to plan ahead and get drinking water at the store on your first day.

Language

Most everyone does speak English on the island fortunately. But they do have a local Samoan language as well, so you could encounter some locals who don’t speak English very well.

Island Time

You often hear about people being on “Island Time” when you visit various islands. We definitely found this to be the case here. We found that business hours for stores, restaurants, buses, etc were very flexible and unreliable despite having listed hours online or on a physical sign. So being flexible and having a backup plan is key.

Visiting the National Park

So, after navigating all of the logistical hurdles of American Samoa, we were excited to finally explore the National Park! Here’s everything we did within the National Park including some of the logistics.

On the first day of exploring, we went to the Visitor’s Center located on the main road in the central Fagatogo area. When we went, the Visitor’s Center was only open from 8:00-4:30 Monday-Friday, so keep that in mind if you’re visiting on a weekend. The Visitor’s Center was a very helpful jumping off point for us because we gained a lot of insight about the trails, how to get there, etc. from the staff. We also enjoyed looking at the exhibits and learning more about the history of the island and the park. We picked up some trail maps and information there as well.

From there, we walked to a shorter trail that was easily accessible without transportation, Blunt’s Point Trail. It was a short trail with good views at the top, and some historical artifacts including some old military gun batteries.

The next day, we drove with our new friends to the Mount Alava Trail. We started from the Fagasa Pass Trailhead which is less than a 10 minute drive from the Visitors Center. We’d originally read there was a bus route that goes this way, but the times seemed inconsistent, and it’s definitely not a safe road to walk, so we were glad to have a ride. This was a moderate 7.5 mile hike with amazing views at the top of the surrounding mountains and ocean. You do have to climb some rickety/sketchy stairs to a platform at the top to get the good views though. It was a bit muddy along the trail and we ended up getting caught in the pouring rain on the way back, but it was still a great hike.

From there, we were lucky that our new friends were able to drive us to a different area of the island that wasn’t on our radar to go to a great oceanfront restaurant and bar where we could also do some snorkeling! The owners made us a delicious lunch with fresh caught seafood! The place is called Tisa’s and it’s definitely worth a visit!

After our amazing lunch stop, we went to a different part of the National Park in the Vatia area where there was a small rocky beach with a very rough current (many warning signs not to enter the water). Here we got to see some awesome rock formations off the coast. There are also some other hikes in this area but we weren’t up for them after all of our adventures already on this day!

There are a few other areas of the park and some more trails that we didn’t get a chance to do. But if you go and have your own car, you may be able to explore even more! I recommend going off the hiking guides available at the Visitor’s Center or on the National Park website, as well as using AllTrails so you don’t get lost!

While we didn’t snorkel in the National Park itself, we did get a chance to snorkel elsewhere on the island. Luckily our friends had snorkel gear. It’s recommended to bring your own if you plan to snorkel on the island because there aren’t any organized tours or rentals since it’s not a very touristy place.

Also of note about the National Park, it actually spans across three different islands, but we only went to the main island where the airport is and most of the amenities are, called Tutuila (and the main city is Pago Pago). We did not do much research into visiting the other two islands but based on a brief search they seem to be a bit harder to access.

Summary & Our Journey to Visit All The National Parks

Although there were some hurdles getting there and getting around, we enjoyed our time on the beautiful island of Tutuila in the US Territory of American Samoa! It’s definitely underdeveloped, and it reminded us of what Hawaii may have been like several decades ago. But, it has a lot of natural beauty and there’s much to explore. We were so excited to make it to the National Park of American Samoa, our 60^th US National Park!

We visited in December 2022, and by the time of writing this in May of 2023, we have now visited two more National Parks: Dry Tortugas and Virgin Islands! That means we now only have ONE National Park left to visit: Isle Royale in Michigan! We have plans to go there this August after our returning from our honeymoon in Europe! So fingers crossed it works out this time and by this summer we will have been to all the US National Parks! Once we’ve visited all of them, we’ll be writing a post about it, so stay tuned!

Do you have a goal of visiting all the US National Parks? What’s your experience been like so far? Have you been to American Samoa? Let us know in the comments!